Marketing & Brand Promoting

This is an application by a technology company called Wildfire. You are given a variety of campaigns to market your product/brand: sweepstakes, coupon giveaways, quizzes, contests etc. Promotion is one of the best ways to draw attention and increase facebook fan base. The only downside is that this service isn’t free. The basic package costs $5 per campaign, the length of your campaign will decide the charges, for example:

You can preview and adjust your campaign to full satisfaction prior to publish (and payment). Signup is free so at least you can explore the service to learn more about how a promotion is made and what are the necessary fields to go with it. If you’re unsure which campaign suits your business page the most, refer to this post for ideas.

Here’s a good news for Constant Contact (email marketing service) users who are not into self-customized opt-in form. All you need to do is login with your credentials then add this catchy form as one of your facebook tabs (unable to shift to Wall as no options for box tab). During setup, make sure to assign the location of these emails (for example: general interest). Also, publish a shout-out so people who like your page (a.k.a fans) will know about it:

It would be great if Aweber and Mailchimp can provide something similar too.

#3: My Portfolio -[25/03/12/]no longer available

This application is specially designed for photographers, models and whoever wish to showcase their artwork in a professional way. It is said to have a clean interface, great for any artist to embed it easily without having to mess with Static FBML. However you do need to upload the photos to Facebook beforehand. During the settings, you can select multiple fan pages and decide which photo album to display.

Who would have thought fixing up a FAQ tab can be this easy? Create your very own page’s frequently asked questions without even worrying about HTML coding, just input as many questions you need. Make sure to ‘Save Changes’ before leaving the setup page or Add New Faq otherwise your draft will be gone. To delete a question, simply click the blue [x] same row as the selected answer.

I have one placed on my fan page if you’re interested to check out the sample. One can expand and hide the answers, plain and simple!

Media-Importing Applications:

I think all Viddler users will appreciate this facebook application – so convenient to setup! Simply type in your Viddler username and that’s it! Record and upload video can be done without having to leave Facebook at all! Also, one can view and comment on videos easily. Did I mention it imports the entire channel too? Absolutely a fantastic app!

YouTube Channels import your entire channel into facebook tab. It equips with social plugin (stream) for commenting, provides sharing option for visitors while showcase your other videos as well. It gives you the ability to insert a banner above your channel, but unfortunately it costs $4.99 per month to set one up in Facebook page. It’s F.O.C for personal account without the banner option .

Good for those who are associating their personal profiles with pages. You can promote your business indirectly via YouTube Channels on personal account. One thing I dislike is the compulsory to fill up email address as shown below:

For those who are not willing to pay can consider using Involver with similar service – free to import your youtube channel and the ability to share selectively with your friends. However, it does not come with a comment form.

Love this application for it imports the entire Flickr account with sets of photos (publicly files only) and able to view them via tags. Fans can enjoy the photo streaming inside the facebook page. To customize the tabs or use it on your facebook page requires payment: $10/year or $20/3 years for VIP membership (free for personal profile).

Of course, you can always use Flickr tab by Involver, which I’ll explain next…

**Kindly take note that application tabs will be removed from profile (not pages) starting 3rd Nov 2010, refer here for details. So no more FREE apps from Tabfusion**

Ah yes, we’ve heard so much about it offering free services to import YouTube channels and Flickr accounts. Actually Involver provides more than that: import Slides, PDFs, Photo and Promotion Gallery. As long you’re not bothered by their big brand name at the side of your tab then it should be no problem. They do provide premium package as well for customers who are willing to take a step further with signup form, coupons, even eliminating the brand name, but that’s optional. Here’s an example of Mashable’s Twitter tab using Involver, notice the ability to share the tab with your friends selectively – available for both free and premium users.

Portfolio tab bundles Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs under one facebook tab. It works brilliantly for personal profile where you can have clickable buttons for each social profiles similar to a mini-website.

Flickr Tab at #7 is an example of how each social tab would look like as a stand-alone tab. Before this, I was looking for a blog application with post excerpts but without comment form. Blog Tab fits right for the category and I have it setup now on my personal profile. The fonts are much bigger than Social RSS; post title links to my main site, just how I like it. In order to have an all-in-one tab as shown above, you need to authorize each tab individually before merging them altogether. Same as Flickr tab, this service is not free for Facebook Page (bummer, isn’t it?) but should be great to try out on your personal profile for extra visibility.

**Kindly take note that application tabs will be removed from profile (not pages) starting 3rd Nov 2010, refer here for details. So no more FREE apps from Tabfusion**

Fans/People Who Like Engagements

Clobby is a chatroom app for both personal profile and facebook page owners to communicate with friends/fans instantly. Great for casual chats so you won’t have to worry about flooding people streams with continuous postings on Wall. I did a post about Clobby on my posterous blog after testing it. Read about it if you’re interested to know more about the settings and review.

Social Media Profiles

Yes, I had mentioned this application in earlier post. However, there are slight changes for this application in terms of name and settings. Instead of fixing it at the left column as a social button, now it is displayed as a Facebook tab with your complete LinkedIn summary. This is no doubt a smart move for LinkedIn account integration.

If you own multiple facebook pages and dying to share them with your fans but unfamiliar with codes or Static FBML, Page List is a good choice for you to display all pages in one tab. People who like your page can choose to visit all of them or do it selectively. Of course if you only manage one facebook page like me, no point of setting a tab for that. The above image is just for your reference only. The setting is relatively easy as well, make your page selections and save changes. If you wish to include your selections to other pages, look for ‘add to page’ on top of the dashboard.

Vpype Live Broadcaster provides you the ease to create live shows to millions of Facebook users. Great opportunity to meet new fans and interact lively with viewers. You can record the show then promote to fans with a ‘Show’ tab as shown above. It works well for personal profile too, get family and friends to participate has never been easier. Just get your microphone and speaker ready, then follow the steps below for configuration.

Others:

These facebook applications might not be for everyone but can be useful for some:

#14: Creative Commons License -[25/03/12/]no longer available

This application allows you to specify how your media files and updates can be used by others with six Creative Commons licenses given. Be sure to choose one license that fits all the items shared on facebook and not individually. This is particularly useful for users who are sharing their artwork on Facebook. Although this application does give us the option to ‘add to page’, but the ‘CC’ tab returns with an empty box. If you are to use it for Facebook Page, recommended to save and upload the image to your server, then place the link inside image embedding code with the help of Static FBML.

If you’re an owner for a restaurant, what can be more suitable if not having a menu tab on your fan page? You can include phone number (for delivery, maybe?), display set lunch or special of the day with pricing too! Love these non-complicated tabs to save time and trouble.

Important Notes: Application Removal

You may enjoy testing out these applications but do bear in mind: If you’re not going to use it then remember to remove them from your account:

About The Author

Ching Ya

Found myself using LinkedIn more lately, so thanks for the heads up on the LinkedIn app here.

Think I need to start apply more of these apps to increase interaction. Though I am in the process of working on new Facebook Fan page to get my new blog going. So you tips here will become real handy.

Nothing is more uplifting to hear people benefiting from a little research I did on Facebook. You have my gratitude for liking it and share it with your network. Good to know you’re working on another new blog. Hope to hear more about it when you’re ready.

Great list, Ching Ya. I especially like the FAQ,, LinkedIn and Page List apps and will bookmark Promotions and Constant Contact to check out later.

The only issue I have is the safety/security of third party apps. I don’t use any for my personal account as it gives access to all of my info AND my friends. Do apps for FB Pages act the same way? Though I love the bells and whistles, I’m more concerned with keeping my Page stable and safe. Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

First of all, thank you so much for supporting this site. Appreciate you liking some of the ideas mentioned here.

This is a good question you brought up and I understand your concern. From what I’ve been observing so far on my page, if you’re using the reliable app (non-gaming or unknown source etc) for your page, it should be alright. I have yet seen any mass-produce spams or intrusion on my page resulting on using the existing apps. But I do very skeptical on apps about quizzes, games and avoiding/blocking them at all costs so it won’t affect both my personal and fan page.

Upon using an app, I normally check users reviews/discussions to see how others responding to it before adding. Of course there is no definite ‘secure’ for each app therefore advisable to check on them as frequently as possible is the best way.

Another way, is to avoid using unnecessary apps. We won’t be needing all 31 apps, definitely, so just choose what you think needed. ^^

It’s great chatting with you on FB too. And I do treasure you taking the time to visit, comment and network too. Big thanks!

I hope not, the last thing I want is to cause trouble. lol.. haven’t seen you awhile so hope all things are well for you. Busy guy as always huh? Keep up the great work! Thanks for taking the time to visit.

I’m sure it won’t but I would probably go bananas, hehe. These apps will have to go to ever growing “do it later” master file. 31 apps is a lot although I myself have been a lot more active on LinkedIn lately. As always a time saver. Hope all is well with you Ching. Have a great weekend
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..How Much Does Google AdSense Pay You? =-.

That’s good, LinkedIn is still in my ‘to-do’ list where I need to enhance my knowledge for it first. But surely I hope can cover something about it soon enough. Thanks so much & wish you a great week too!

This is awesome. Like always I never know about those services, perhaps I never tried to know that. Thanks for saving my time.
.-= Arafat Hossain Piyada´s last blog ..Learn On Site SEO From Google(Video) =-.

Anytime. Hope if you ever thought about building a facebook page for your website, these apps can help you enhance it further. Wish you the best and hope to hear your experience after testing out some of them. Appreciate your visit.

Seems I’m missing lot of nice facebook applications, I am not using any one the applications what I’m seeing here! Planning to add some of them to my profile Thanks for listing here.
.-= P.K.ARUN´s last blog ..Get unlimited post ideas without leaving your website =-.

Great resource here Ching Ya. I have recently been trying to step up my game on Facebook and this will be great help. I was actually thinking about doing a promotion to try and attract more fans for my Vacation website I just need to get that going.
.-= Danny @ FL Vacation Rentals´s last blog ..Holmes Beach Vacation Rental 109 =-.

Ching Ya, thanks for taking the time to put this resource together. Although I currently ban applications on my FB account, if I can create separation between business and personal, these applications can be useful!

Ah.. the personal perofile and business page rival. I can fully understand your situation. I’m currently trying to work out a post regarding this issue too, if you have any requests be sure to drop me a line.

Did you setup a facebook page yet? These apps are mostly introduced for that, in case you ever needed them, you know where to look for. ^^Thanks again for visiting.

Gee, you can’t have tell that you love FaceBook Ching Ya, you really put a lot into these posts of yours.

I have a FaceBook page but I don’t have much to do with it other than have my posts automatically listed on my page. I reckon that means I have a lot of work ahead of me if I ever want to catch up with what I’m missing. Thanks Mate
.-= Sire´s last blog ..FlexSqueeze Latest Update Absolutely Rocks =-.

Hope I didn’t bored you out with all these Facebook posts. You have a Facebook Page? Why am I not informed? Did I join yet? I better go to your site and double check on that. ^^ Was a little overwhelmed lately but I’ll never forget to visit you guys, late is better than never, right?

What a great resource you have pulled together. I will need to revert back in the future, I must admit that Facebook is not one of my primary blog promotion tools. I do realize that I need to invest more time with FB.
.-= Dan Keller@Promote your Blog´s last blog ..Are you considering Guest Blogging? Do NOT Do it! =-.

Glad you find this resource useful. Indeed, Facebook Page is still quite ‘new’ for many and I agree it’s not for everyone, but an option if one ever hopes to extend the network further. Just in case you need it, I’ll be happy to assist you. Keep up the great work at your blog, my friend.

Just EXACTLY when I started looking into using Wildfire Apps on behalf of a client who wants to run a promotion, you review it. Your timing couldn’t be better – and the information is exactly what I am looking for

This is a really fabulous list of resources. I didn’t know about the YouTube Channels app, which might be the right solution for one page. However, for feeding YouTube into a Facebook Page, I really like YouTube Video Box. I like that it doesn’t automatically feed videos from your YouTube channel into the Facebook Page. Rather, with Video Box, the Page admin selects each video to add to the page, and it can be any video from within YouTube. You can see an example of it at work on http://www.facebook.com/tawkon.
.-= Debra Askanase´s last blog ..Have You Seen Linkedin’s New Look? =-.

Thanks so much for the heads up. You’re right, and I love YouTube Video Box for that (included that in previous post about 16 FB apps) It’s fascinating to learn so many choices we can pick from to meet our needs. And you’re right with the Wildfire apps, very powerful and helped a lot in customization as well. Most of all, the free apps are just as wonderful too.

Thank you Karl, your kind remark means a lot. Appreciate your comment and support for this blog. I’m a fan of your site too, great information on SEO and will visit you shortly. Thanks again for dropping by.

This list is so freakin’ awesome, I am giddy with excitement to try most, if not all of them out. What a gift you have given us with this gem. I didn’t know many of these exisited. I can’t thank you enough for giving me some new tools to play with and use in my business.
.-= Monica McPherrin´s last blog ..TweetMeme’s ReTweet button can now auto-translate tweets [del.icio.us] =-.

You’re most welcome, Monica, and allow me to welcome you to my humble blog. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. May these apps can help you to promote/enhance your page. Feel free to drop me an email anytime if you have any requests about FB. See you again soon.